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“Salvation is from our side a choice,from the divine side a conquest of the Most High God.”– A.W. Tozer

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.Romans 8:28-30

I’ve never heard a teaching based upon this scripture which did not at least contain within it a subtle pleading on behalf of sin and imperfection. Yet here are pure and holy words, which by the Holy Spirit speak expressly to the perfecting of the saints, whose sins their Saviour takes away, saving them “even to the uttermost.” It is an irony bearing the very fingerprints of Satan, that most who in word affirm the electing Grace of God despise hearing the true reason that He so appeared to all men.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching US* that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.Titus 2:12-15

* “US” – The Grace of God (the Person of Christ) appeared to all men to teach the children of God the fear of the Lord. The Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world: which gift is abundant toward those who avail themselves of it by the powerful operation of the gift of HIS faith within them. He appeared to all; but He came unto His own. Now therefore, let His own continue to receive Him even to the fullness of God; for He has other sheep of which we know not, and He will have the full-grown tree of His planting though He finds need to cast away unfruitful branches in the process.

For judgement Christ has come into the world, “that the ones who do not see may see, and they who see may become blind.” (John 9:39) That which we see of God, we are judged according to. Holiness is walked in by earnestly operating in what God has revealed to each one. Only by this shall men see the Lord: who then must either come to the Light, manifesting the practice of truth which has been wrought in God; or they must walk more determinedly in darkness, working evil before the face of God’s enlightenment because they hate His Light on account of its exposure.

And this Light beams clear and bright in Romans chapter eight, which speaks perhaps most loftily of the highest wonders of His grace.

And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called
according to His purpose…

God equates loving Him with obedience to the calling given to each of His children. Men speak much of a love for God, but few make their calling and election sure. Loving God is proven in those who walk in the specific purposes of His will for them by the Holy Spirit, who gives all unction for the task. Would that we availed ourselves of His boundless resource, unto His good working in “all things”! For of such the apostle can be confident, “that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”(Php 1:6)

…For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren…

Foreknowledge is the eternal desire of God pursuing men. It is the pleasure of the Good Shepherd to go after a lost sheep; even to find the one in leaving the ninety-nine. And to these, who by the Father are drawn to Him, He seeks to reveal the eternal purpose for which they were apprehended by Him: which is that they might themselves apprehend Him. This is that for which we are predestined; for by laying hold of He who first lay hold of us, we become in this world as He is, so that when He appears we may be like Him, seeing Him as He is. The predestination of God has within it the strengthening power of His grace to this very end for those who remain in Christ. Those who do not avail themselves of His strength to be conformed to His image fail to walk in what He has predestined. The destiny of each child of God becoming a perfect reflection of Christ the Son is decided by God; but it is carried out in those who continually yield to His way that it might be manifested as true. Jesus’ brother, sister, and mother are those who do the will of His Father. The likeness of the Son is revealed within each one to the degree that they allow Him to conform them to that glorious image – no cost in this life being comparable to the glory that shall be revealed…

…Moreover whom He did predestinate,
them He also called…

God’s calling is to be obeyed: disobedience is the calling neglected, and a calling neglected stands in judgement over the one called. “The gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” – they remain immovable in God, their blessing impending upon the diligent; but the wicked and slothful servant moves only to bury it in the cursed soil of earth. If only he had discovered the heavenly-tilled soil which God is so gracious to produce in men’s hearts, if they would but submit to the process of growing in His good and perfect gifts! “And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.”(Lk 12:47) In the parable of the marriage feast (Mt 22) Jesus sent “to call them that were bidden”(v3 – KJV). The word for both call and bidden are the same Greek word (καλέω – Str. G2564). Literally, He “called them that were called,” and they refused to come on account of their own pressing earthly cares. They would rather fellowship with the dead than follow Christ and leave the dead to bury themselves. It is well to be called; but to end here is an eternal shame. That which we have received from above, let us also give, give into, and give in to fully. The callings of God are not optional if we should supp with Him in the highest of heavenly gladness. There is a place reserved for those without an inheritance (“outer darkness… where there is weeping & gnashing of teeth” – Mt ch. 8, 22, 24, 25). In the words of Peter, it is partaking of the divine nature TODAY which brings us “abundantly” into His kingdom still partaking…

…give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.2 Peter 1 – (read the whole chapter)

…and whom He called,
them He also justified…

Religious men would not arrange the list in Romans 8:29-30 with justified following called if they had written it; for to them these words carry nothing beyond the past tense. But God, knowing the end from the beginning and the hardness of men’s hearts, speaks by faith concerning present and future realities as though they were past; so that men may likewise avail themselves of living by HIS faith in order to lay hold of the Truth for themselves. For by the Word of God the heavens and the earth were created; and the gospel of Christ that very Word remains the power of God unto salvation for them that believe (present-tense). “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith unto faith. As it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Faith is to be the substance growing within a person unto the righteousness of God being revealed in them. For the just are those who are justified, and justification is for those called to righteousness; and those in whom said righteousness is not revealed did not make their calling and election sure from faith to faith. For the creation’s expectant groaning shall only be satisfactorily answered by the revealing of the sons of God; and these are only revealed to the degree that Christ in them is revealed, Who is their hope of glory. The just are those in whose hearts the light of Jesus Christ has shone as out of the midst of darkness; so that now as His salvation draws ever-nearer, they strive for no less than to see the word fulfilled: “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.” Men want justification to be a trite excuse for rationalizing their neglect of this high and upward calling to glorification after His likeness. But here the Holy Spirit will have none of their guilty pleadings on behalf of iniquity and sin; which He came as an inward fire to remove and to purge, that we should be liberated to walk transformed by His ever-renewing power.

…and whom He justified,
them He also glorified…

The just live by faith; and if they “NOW live by the faith OF the Son of God”(Gal 2:20), then shall they find at work in them that same living righteousness which is only “through the faith OF Christ”(Php 3:9). It is only in walking by HIS faith, and that increasing, that God’s end for His own shall be attained to: the full sanctification of their whole beings. Paul expressed this longing of God for His people,

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God
your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.1 Thessalonians 5:23-24

There have sadly been those throughout history who have divided these three parts of the human person with the intent of suppressing certain ones for the glorification of others. This is folly. God does not regard the body or the soul any less than the spirit; for He created them to glorify Himself, and He partook of all three that He might perfect them all in His children. Those who are happy to pursue the perfecting of the spirit, yet deny that the soul and body could possibly be sanctified WHOLLY,saying that these must rather be irreparably broken or suppressed in this life, will only fall short of the glory of God which He holds in store for each of these components which make up the whole.

The spirit of man, which men are so often proud to boast in, is not our own. “But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”(1Cor 6:17) And the Word of God divides soul and spirit for the purpose of discerning unto the good of both; not unto the pushing down of the soul, but for restoring it to the wholeness and freedom of a man’s entire being in God’s purposes. For even after the fall of Adam, God has still woven each one together in the womb: each with a personality and certain traits which are only brought to fullness and right usage in sanctification – but not thrown away; for God has woven and continues weaving that vessel to be a unique expression of His likeness. God forbid that His call and gifting within us should have doubt cast upon it by the carnality of those who despise the humanity of man in his soul. Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man: for in God the two are completely compatible. For in the image of God He created man, and the life of the Christian is again hid with Christ in God. Each is therefore given the means to be a reflection of the various facets of God’s wisdom and glory. An excellent diamond requires light to strike its multiple faces from different angles in order to display the manifold beauty of its singular essence – not because the diamond is unable to display all of its glory at once, but because its viewers are insufficient to behold much of it apart from interactive movement in the light. God’s is One; but the wisdom of His glory as displayed in the many-membered church of His Son is manifold. Few have considered that to despise and neglect the soul may well be tantamount to giving it over to the Devil’s purposes. He will gladly steal, kill, and destroy whatever is carelessly left within his reach. The merchandising of men’s souls is a key characteristic of Mystery Babylon. Therefore the “churches” of men, which truly produce only formulaic proselytes despising their own souls rather than calling many sons to Christ’s glory: these entities are Babylon’s harlot daughters.

And the body of a man: the body is not a vessel to be considered worthless; for the very body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. The “flesh” often spoken of by Paul as being at war with the Spirit usually refers to the sinful nature, not strictly the body. This is easily distinguishable by children from the other times when Paul refers to the physical body using the same term. The crossover in terminology is an acknowledgement of how sin operates amidst the fabric of the person, not a blanket condemnation of all things on the physical plane, or even of the soul. Men are carriers of the sinful nature, and outside of Christ, hopelessly subject to it; but we not the sinful nature incarnate. There is only One who has tasted such an unfathomable baptism of unmatched horror so that we who believe in Him never should: “He becamesin who knew no sin, that we should become the righteousness of God in Him.” The cross we are called to bear is one of identification with Him, not one of being condemned as sin, which He already bore once for all, so that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus…”

“…that WE should become the righteousness of God…” – Not only “that our spirits should become,” or perhaps even, “that our spirits and souls should become.” No. But rather the whole of the person, wholly sanctified! Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Majesty of high in His fully human resurrection body, for our sake! He is our mediator because He is “the man, Jesus Christ”! The scriptures do not speak of simply shedding the mortal to be clothed in in immortality; they rather speak of the mortal putting on immortality – there is a great difference (1 Cor 15). The former despises the body, the latter hopes of its translation. “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.” And the likeness of our spiritual body to His image will be in proportion to how we bore His image in the earthly body: for “ASwe have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”(1Cor 15:49). “AS” – Gk. καθώς, Str. G2531 – inasmuch, in proportion as, in the degree that. It is the hope of the church who endures His refining fire that in the last days they should not all sleep…

Behold, I shew you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. BUT thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:51-58

The resurrection of the dead which Paul longed to “attain unto” was the final resurrection (Gk. ἀνάστασις – Str. G386, always used of the resurrection unto glory, or of Christ’s fore-running resurrection). He sought this translation; but he was a man born out of due season, yet still he strove to this end “if by any means…”

That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.Philippians 3:10-12

“…either were already perfect” – The perfecting of the saint is in view here because it is possible through Christ; and its present earthly chapter of being joined in the likeness of His death culminates in partaking of the same resurrection. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” (2Cor 4:10)

For the one that died has been justified from sin.Romans 6:7

…and whom He justified, them He also glorified.

Let this high calling not be received as condemnation, but as hope which further purifies God’s children in the seeing of Christ our Life.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure.1 John 3:2-3

The purity and completeness of Christ’s bride is what brings about her translation; and when she is found in perfect unison with the call of His Spirit, He will answer coming forth to escort her, “Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”(SS 2:10) The Spirit of truth is the One witnessing, let us obtain His good witness to this end…

By faith Enoch was translated so as not to see death,
and was not found, because God translated him.
For before his translation, he had obtained witnessto have been pleasing to God.Hebrews 11:5 (LITV)

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.1 Thessalonians 4:15-18

Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.Psalm 73:1 (ESV)

~ FIRST, AN EXHORTATION ~

The holynation of God is made up of those who are pure in heart. The thing which God is after is a holy nation, and He will have it at great cost. No, He has even already paid for it immeasurably. So when and how shall He see the full fruit of the travail of His soul? His being poured out unto death is the promise of glory; but in every merciful promise of God, the recipients are justly charged to actively inherit its spiritual substance in the likeness of He who opened the way unto that abundance of His Life.

The aim of our charge is love
that issues from a pure heart
and a good conscience
and a sincere faith.1 Timothy 1:5

His holy uncompromising love issues forth from pure hearts because the pure heart has no defilement of conscience, so that their participating in the faith can always be instant and authentic. These are a peculiar people, for they are no one’s possession except His. They are not even their own, for they see and are ever undone at the immeasurable worth of His buying price. Today is the day for purity of heart to be sought and acquired in the members of God’s house, lest the jealous yearning of His indwelling Spirit be provoked to wrath upon His near visitation.

The prophet wondered aloud regarding the day in which the Lord suddenly comes to His temple: “But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiners fire…” We the temple stand at the threshold of that day, and we ought to be trembling; for He shall first visit His own house to purge the iniquity and burn the chaff. If evil will not be removed from our hearts by the Lord in His strivings with us, then the Lord is free to remove the evil of heart.

Beloved, we are God’s children now,
and what we will be has not yet appeared;
but we know that when He appears
we shall be like Him,
because we shall see Him as He is.1 John 3:2

He identifies His own by their likeness to Him. Now, there are degrees and varied expressions of His manifestation through each one of us; but let each one earnestly participate in whatever measure which God has entrusted to them, lest any be ashamed at His coming as was the wicked and slothful servant. Those who will not see Him as He is will not be like Him. This truth transcends whatever we may think defines the boundaries of His house. Those who abide in Him unto the doing of righteousness by faith may have confidence at His appearing; but those who shrink back from substantive faith leave themselves to walk in a most precarious hope and superficial assurance. For by not being continually lead of His Spirit, they see little of Him in person, and the wonder of His Life remains but a faint abstraction easily traded for lesser things. Pray the Lord opens their eyes, lest they carelessly slip away and not endure!

But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal:
“The Lord knows those who are His,” and,
“Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver
but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,
he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy,
useful to the Master of the house, ready for every good work.2 Timothy 2:19-21

If the ungodly shall not be spared in the final judgement, much more should the unfaithful servants learn again to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling before that final day; those whom He expectantly appointed to present His church to Him a chaste virgin, spotless and without wrinkle. “It is time for judgement to begin at the house of God.” The names of those who weep over the ravished daughter of Zion are being written in the books, as well as those who have ravished her; and not a wicked soul shall His slaying Spirit spare: beginning at His most holy sanctuary, which they have defiled by their abominable revelings in HIS bride.

Let every one whom God has called into the fellowship of His mystery heed the warnings of His word.

~ THEREFORE ~

I write this (especially what follows) to the earnest of heart, who desire no other shepherd than the Good One, who cry for nothing less than the Lord Himself to be fully glorified in them: His perfect will done in light of these things.

This Psalm [73] has for some time now been a sharp instrument in the skilled hands of my Physician, and it necessarily remains so. It contains the words of a man rightfully disenchanted with the spiritual injustice of his day, yet crippled by the impure response of his heart toward it. The proverb is true: “the more knowledge, the more sorrow;” and the sorrowful soul not being continually restored by the Lord can become just as deceitful and desperately wicked as any unregenerate heart. Those who see the horror of things as they are and hear the urgent call of God can easily run the risk of feeling as though they have come to something which excludes them from requiring further heart surgery. Herein lies the path of becoming both unmerciful and unjust in response to what God is revealing. The great danger of conviction is that we become content with its mere presence, neglecting its call to ever-deepening repentance.

The Psalmist continues…

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.Psalm 73:2-5

“I was envious of the arrogant…” Here is the admission of a man who observed the order of things correctly, yet contemplated them unrighteously within his soul. A lack of personal peace due to the succeeding of the wicked indicates this envy in the hidden heart. Envy is not merely covetousness. Covetousness has to do with lusts and selfish desires; but envy describes a self-centered sense of justice. Envy is a root of restless evil which supplies the many tendrils of covetousness. But even if we do not directly covet the unrighteousness of men or their gain by it, it is still the sin of envy which we find inwardly robbing us of walking in the peace of God. In being envious of the arrogant, we become arrogant. Where God does not appear to be the fulcrum of justice, we overstep Him to seek out our own. This is the envy here described. We act in the passion of envy and speak in the heat of our own displeasure. The reasoning is righteous, but the execution is not; and this is not a matter of outward method, but of the inward heart.

This envy reveals the absence of Godly contentment; it is the frame of those seeking their own justice for all that rightly disturbs their souls. The Devil has learned well to drain the Godly contentment out of those who are righteously dissatisfied with the status quo of man’s religion. For what we envy is the apparent peace of the wicked in light of the apparent disappointment of “I the righteous.” But this is not reality as God sees it; since there is no true peace for the wicked, and disappointment is not the lot of those who trust in the Lord. We think too highly of our selfishly impassioned understandings. A lack of entrusting God’s capable hands to be in control of matters too lofty for us brings about the crippling frustration of envy in our souls, so that in the secret of our hearts we rail against the most high over our perceived predicament while the wicked prosper.

Self-pity is the unrighteous bog in which we soak our hearts when we allow the evil of men to overshadow the goodness of God in our present sight. But we are exhorted to see from eternity, that we may bring back the piercing decree of eternity to lighten this present darkness. The decree from what our own eyes see and our own ears hear among men will not do; since from these God’s perfect justice and equity can never proceed. But those who have stood in His council are constrained to speak the truth in a true heart; for at their appointments with the King, mercy triumphs over judgement. By the brightness of His glory before their eyes and in the burning of His coals upon their lips, His perfect justice ever becomes their acquaintance.

By mercy and truth iniquity is purged:
and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.Proverbs 16:6

Let us therefore with thankfulness and fear fix our eyes upon the things which are of Christ, our only boast; for by these we find the renewing of our troubled minds, and receive the heavenly wisdom both seen and heard in the stark yet measured words of our Lord. Neither the fear of man nor the wrath of man works the righteousness of God; but there is an inner choosing of God’s peace which disarms the provocateurs of Satan, and a bold confidence in “His own arm” amidst dire circumstance which confounds the evil powers. Blessed are they who invite the searching light of God into the unvisited places of the heart, that when His purifying fire comes it may be gladly received to do its work.

But regarding the wicked, whose hearts we ourselves emulate through the unrighteous fellowship of envy, the Psalmist continues…

Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
Therefore His people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them. And they say,“How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease,
they increase in riches.Psalm 73:6-12

“The murmuring spirit… has much of the spirit of Satan within it.”– Jeremiah Burrows

The soul most embittered by perceived injustice most quickly rises within the ranks of the unjust. The unjust were all at one time crying out for justice themselves. For no sooner does a man give himself to earnestly seek God’s justice in light of great evil, than the Devil and the flesh remind him of every wrong that he has suffered at the hands of men – especially the betrayal of his very brothers. When we seek the undoing of unrighteousness to find the peace of God rather than standing in the peace of God to find the undoing of unrighteousness, we inevitably find ourselves likewise setting our mouths against the heavens. Yet what was our Lord’s response to this world, who knew men’s wicked hearts beforehand? See what it accomplished! For in Him the Spirit blew where it wished. At one time He was quick to rebuke; at another, to extend mercy; at another, to leave men to themselves. All these interactions were enthroned upon righteousness and justice; for He knew what was in man, because He knew where He came from and where He was going. He perfectly discerned others because He perfectly discerned Himself, so that the Holy Spirit was at liberty in Him. The degree to which we discern ourselves determines the degree to which we discern outside of ourselves and are enabled to be more precisely led by His Spirit.

He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked.Isaiah 11:3-4

Such is the way of one whose life proceeds from heaven. The desired reward of true righteousness is the singular glory of God, who today still sends His rain upon the just and the unjust alike. The pure in heart know that they are not the protectors of God’s glory – this is why they can stand undeterred in spirit despite the wicked schemes round about them. For the wise do not dare touch the Ark of God to steady it, though it appears for a moment to waver. The tempter prompts good yet undiscerning men to seize the day right when God is about to make it His own. Any ministration which bypasses the direct working of His Spirit is a ministration after the spirit of antichrist. If we are grieved by what we see and spurred to action with the Holy Spirit, then let the justice of God first overtake and trample our own motivations, lest our own decree go forth and not His. The purest justice flows from a vessel which has itself been most refined in judgement; but the heart envious toward evil men reveals its own impurity as it wearies of walking uprightly amidst such a perverse generation…

All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
If I had said, “I will speak thus,”I would have betrayed the generation of Your children.
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.Psalm 73:13-17

The response of an impure heart toward evil both within and without God’s house causes our brethren to stumble, for in our envious condition we ourselves are slipping. Let such infancy in grace give way to maturity through both receiving and trusting His good counsel, which He reserves for the ones who diligently seek Him. Holy ground is walked upon by those who earnestly desire to look upon His beauty and inquire in His temple. Only here is made known in the depths of our being the unfathomableness of His perfection in His dealings with men: of His foreknowledge and His longsuffering, of His mercy and His wrath stored up for their respective days, of the desperate longings of His heart unsearchable, of the boundless symmetry of His way inscrutable. Those who humble themselves to seek the counsel of the Lord regarding their grievances will find not merely words to fill an intellectual gap, but living eye-salve of the Holy Spirit. For He reveals His heart regarding the wicked only so much as we allow our own darkness to likewise be lightened.

Truly You set them in slippery places;
You make them fall to ruin.
How they are destroyed in a moment,
swept away utterly by terrors!
Like a dream when one awakes,
O Lord, when You rouse yourself,
You despise them as phantoms.
When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward You.
Nevertheless, I am continually with You;
You hold my right hand.Psalm 73:18-23

In the nearness of God the end of evil men is at last discerned; for here is our own wickedness also discerned. He allows the wicked to prosper that they may heap up a most complete judgement for themselves: this itself is a judgement of God, and we dare not interfere with His proceedings as children rudely interrupting His court. The pure in heart do not overstep God’s decree regarding the wicked: they are satisfied with it; for they have seen His decree’s relevance even to themselves but for His ever-new mercies. They find peace even in the hearing of His heavier counsels, for they know the good of conceding to His way. In this they are not denying His intercession through them, but they uphold its rightful place. Intercession is the extending of God’s heart within us for what He has decreed, not of our own counsels toward Him; and there are times when He emphatically says, “Pray NOT for this people, for their good…”(Jer 14:11) There is a sin leading to death, and we would do well to walk in the discernment of He who sees the hidden thoughts and intentions of men’s hearts. Conversely, in those for whom God still suffers long there can be a particularly unruly waywardness which requires us to trustingly remove our hands from them, so that He who drew us to Himself apart from man’s devices might be able do the same in them. It is not that we give up; but we do let go, certainly grieved with the Spirit yet also freed from ourselves that we may rejoice in His hope.

We often despise God’s times and seasons, because He uses them to challenge what we think should be happening and how soon. The sooner we trust Him, the sooner we shall see His hour. But we need to trust Him first – then He will do whatever pleases Him, however it pleases Him. The prophet Elijah, who hid himself in virtual exile for years at a time upon the command of God, became so entwined in God’s perfect will that he could confidently say, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to MY word.”(1 Kings 17:1) Elijah lived standing in the Most Holy Place before God Himself, speaking and moving according to whatever he saw the Father doing. He was a true intercessor: a man who stood in the gap, just as Noah who “by faith… condemned the world” in his building of God’s refuge for the righteous few.The battle within us is not merely between action and inaction; it is a matter of whose action. There is a Devilish restlessness which saps the Godly strength of the ready soul.

The most well-intentioned self-will is the greatest neutralizer of true intercession. The tether which binds fleshly action to a holy burden is sensual and demonic; but those who are overcome of Christ overcome the world in His faith. They are secure in daring to say “Thy will be done” because they have chosen to live before the judgement seat of Christ today. For it is here that we discover our need to be led by the hand into the maturity of a living understanding, where our perspective of justice gives way to His own. If we could taste but a drop of His holy anguish over the injustices of wicked men, we would be utterly ashamed of our own imperfect angst. In the covert of His wings vexation is removed from the soul; and the spirit of loneliness and rejection which fostered all manner of sins gives way to renewed strength by returning to the arms of He who never truly forsook us. The burden of the whole world is the Lord’s; and we shall only rightly partake of His burdens if we allow Him to minister rest to our souls, else their weightiness will cause our hearts to fail and our flesh give way to defeat. We cannot minister to the Lord if we are not first ministered to by Him. We may speak much of readiness yet His love remains bound within us, unable to be fully and freely expressed. But deliverance finds those who at last give up pride and let Him win, consolation is found by those whom His word breaks in pieces, and the anointing is poured out of broken vessels. The works of which the pure in heart shall tell are HIS.

You guide me with Your counsel,
and afterward You will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is nothing on earth
that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.For behold, those who are far from You shall perish;
You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to You.
But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord God my refuge,
that I may tell of all Your works.Psalm 73:24-28

The words of the Lord are pure words:
as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times.Psalm 12:6

It is the method of God that His holy things are brought forth through earthen vessels who are being inwardly purged by His fire. The place of purity and holiness is the place of judgement: it is the realm of God’s dwelling wherein all the hidden secrets of men’s hearts are naked and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom each shall give an account. It is the habitation sought diligently TODAY by those who seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness. For righteousness is seen in the free flow of that lively river which makes glad the city of God, and it is heard in the pure words borne of His fiery trials. Each person in His city is to be the open conduit of that river, and each one of them the earthen furnace bearing His perfect silver.

So let the wise rejoice, those who seek the “seven times” refining of His furnace that only the purest of silver might be brought forth – yes, let them be glad; for He has placed within every heart of His redeemed a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their path, if they would but look unto that indwelling Counselor. And do not be restrained by the falsehood of men who minimize the salvation of the soul, as though it remained the perpetual enemy of God even in faith. For the soul of a man yields to the will whomever’s word he believes, and the soul of the redeemed can always freely yield to the Spirit of God. “He restores my soul” – it is the truth, let it be so! The soul trusting in God despite the accusatory voice is the soul which presently finds the benefits of its restoration: it is the redeemed heart being capacitated to house greater and deeper things of God for His righteousness to be walked in, in this life! Blessed are they who do not harden their hearts to Him who is speaking to them TODAY. The over-analysis of man’s fickle outward countenance works to the paralysis of faith; but by beholding His countenance whose Spirit dwells in us, we find ourselves inheriting the promise of the guarantee already deposited within the creature. For doubtless He gladly delivers us TODAY into a holy ability by the power of His Spirit; but “weeping and gnashing of teeth” is the inheritance of the faithless, who cast doubt upon the thoroughness of the Lord’s very present provision.

The wise keep ready with their lamps ever full of His oil; but the foolish must feign spirituality, for theirs are filled instead with the lengthy tomes of man’s darkened understanding. O, that they would see, and such grievous vanity be displaced by the beaming brevity of the Spirit of the Lord! The foolish refuse to discover and interact with the Lord’s inheritance within them so that they may preserve the familiarity of their emptiness; but the wise freely acknowledge His inheritance within them so that His living waters might liberally burst forth from out of their own being…

…that the communication of thy faith may become effectual
by the acknowledging of every good thingwhich is in you in Christ Jesus.Philemon 1:6

Every member of God’s house has the ability to quench the fire and dam the river. Many have gone to a certain point in the things of the Spirit and become content not to continue beyond whatever satisfies those around them. But those who refuse to become dull of hearing and weary of seeing the things of God are not content to stay behind the lines which their forefathers have drawn. My participation in THE faith which is mine in Christ Jesus becomes effectual not by the wishful admiration of things yet outside of me, but rather by the acknowledging of every good thing which is verily in me through Him! Let the veil of shame and false humility be removed; let the redeemed souls of the Lord not shrink back from walking after His declaration.

Those who never step forward despite the darkness which they see within themselves will never pass through that blinding shroud and cast it off behind them. What (or Who) we behold is that to which we become beholden in our walk; and we are to behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror! For as much as it is not a matter of beholding ourselves, it is yet also not a matter of beholding a thing outside ourselves. For we shall only walk as children of light by beholding that Light who resides within us. At all times He is there, eagerly shining forth to the end that His illumination would be acknowledged and not neglected for the familiar ways of men. We are commanded to walk as children of light because we ARE already light in the Lord (Eph 5:8). And in the confidence of this soul-anchoring hope, we may turn our eyes with singularity upon He who hereby liberates us to walk in the fuller victory to which we have been called…

…whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
And we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror,
are transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as from the Lord, the Spirit.2 Corinthians 3:16-18

Is not your life hid with Christ in God? For He is the Shepherd Whose very habitation is His sheep: this is why they shall not want – unless they seek the ministration of another. The church of today are spectating at the Dead Sea rather than wading into the Jordan: not only do they err in their manner of participation, but they partake of the wrong sort of waters! They hang upon the empty words of men, whose rivers are long stilled and their fires long quenched; rather than allowing the word of the Lord to become as a fire in their very own bones, constraining them to act on the things which they have seen and heard unto the overflow of their own waters. The true Life of God begins flowing in the secret place; and it calls for the same dynamic in others. But the spirit of any other cistern is a strange woman seducing men of God to trade the fountain of living waters for a broken well which can hold none.

Drink waters out of thine own cistern,
and running waters out of thine own well.Proverbs 5:15

Those merely going after the revelation of another are truly being drawn away by the spirit of antichrist, following the voice of mere men; trading the divine ministration already at work within them for the fireless words of man’s dammed river. For even if they “follow” a man whose words are truly fire and whose river is truly flowing, they can neither truly receive nor utilize it as such, since they themselves are still trusting in man. But we have one Teacher, even the Christ. For “there are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.” (Prov 19:21). We each have a choice as to whether it shall be the council of men or the counsel of the Lord given audience within our hearts. True things shall not be settled for apart from the Truth Himself – it is a matter of Life or death. One keeps moving in the daily-new things of God; the other terminates course while His ever-present call continues flowing onward and upward.

While men remain sitting their whole lives contemplating the wonderful truth that there is nothing good in them apart from Christ, the wise are found shamelessly acknowledging unto transformation every good thing which He has now indeed placed within them. That which we commit to the Lord He is able to keep; let us therefore apprehend in Him that for which we were already apprehended by Him, guarding the good deposit entrusted to us. For that good deposit of His Spirit is guarded by the using of it; through which He brings forth the increase.

Whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

For this reason I remind you
to fan into flame the gift of God,which is in you…2 Timothy 1:6

Truly, I say to you, whoever does not
receive the kingdom of God like a child
shall not enter it.(Luke 18:17)

While men attempt the work of entering the kingdom in order to recieve it, Jesus reveals that in God’s wisdom we instead recieve the kingdom by faith in order to enter it.

When men lack faith to allow the cross to outweigh their sin, they redifine the gospel one way or another to fit their experience. Either they will make out Christ to be accepting of ungodliness in them, or they will place the power in their own soul to ensure their deliverance and salvation. Both are an afront to God, but I am dealing with the latter here, which can be the greater temptation to truly earnest hearts who have already seen something of holiness and desire to pursue it. Those whom the Devil cannot convince to live lawlessly, he tempts to live legalistically. Those in whom he cannot dispell the fear of God, he seeks rather to terrorize with doubting the sufficiency of His grace to provide true strength. The enemy is equally pleased to make us serve an unjustly permissive God as well as an unjustly overbearing one.

New believers who stumble in the Way yet have the fear of the Lord in them may become tempted to add dead works in order to gain visible righteousness; when truly the only righteousness that produces the works of God is the righteousness which is by faith. For “whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” Where men build a golden house upon no foundation, it is fool’s gold. The great bane of immaturity is a lack of confidence in the sufficiency of the grace of Christ to provide strength in all things. The power to walk as Christ walked does not reside in the natural man, it resides in the promise itself; for truly the promise of eternal life is Christ Himself, and all His fullness, which is the fullness of God. We can do nothing pleasing to God except through Christ, by whom we can do ALL things! If we but trusted Him in this, we would with patience be enabled to see His righteousness working in us through obedience; and then our faith would continually bring growth as good soil and water bring to a great tree, like the kingdom of God is pictured (Mt 13, Mk 4, Lk 13, also see previous article).

But because in this devil’s world we are encouraged to lack such deep and unshakeable faith (and the spiritual patience inherent within it), we instead either settle for compromise, or “go on ahead” from the pure doctrine of CHRIST into our own methods, just because we do not see the manifestations of faith which we have lead ourselves to expect. Ironically, this is actually a foothold for all manner of sins. It is all too common that after someone finds deliverance from certain sins early in their walk, the temptation is to become proud in the self, as though a new spiritual status has been gained by improved behavior. Truly the change in behavior was by the power of God through faith; but nevertheless this pride makes way for a blindsiding fall, and the response to this fall will reveal just how pure the faith of a person is. How they get up may sady determine their trajectory for years to come. Will they stand up in faith and continue to rest in Christ, who alone can deliver those who believe? Or will they try crawling another way? Many turn to their own power with the unspoken intent of adding to God’s power for deliverance. This can only make matters worse. For if, after having begun by the Spirit, we now seek to be perfected by the flesh, then we will only further feed the pride of the same old man who also commits the other sins we think ourselves to be contending with. But the weapons of our warfare are only mighty because they are THROUGH GOD. Only those who wait upon HIM will renew their strength.

Therefore it is written,

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, fear not:
behold, YOUR GOD will come with vengeance,
even God with a recompence;
HE will come and save you.”(Isaiah 35:3-4)

True and pure obedience is that which chases the impossible out of an absolute trust in the power of God. What we so greatly lack by-and-large is humility enough to finally die and let only CHRIST be our vey life. We do not know the power of God! Righteousness rains down upon those who have already sown to themselves IN it. For in Him they already have it by faith, if their faith proves true.

Sow to yourselves IN righteousness, reap IN mercy;
break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD,
till he come and rain righteousness upon you.(Hosea 10:12)

And how can we sow to ourselves in what may not yet be visibly raining upon us? The answer is that we sow IN a righteousness, which although not yet fully seen, has been bestowed upon us so that we may ACT upon SOWING in it. We obey not the possible works we make up for ourselves, but rather we obey the impossible works which God has prepared for us to walk in. For wherever we step into His impossible path, we shall find his power. The same sanctification and holiness which many of the scriptures call us to walk in is eslewhere stated to already be finished. This is not a contradiction, nor does it merit a compromise in our thinking. The answer is found in the integrity of our faith (or lack thereof). Faith mixed with the motives and excuses of the flesh cannot reconcile this thing and therefore leads to the production of many elaborate and compromising doctrines; but faith unmixed, unencumbered, and dying to self can say boldly to a true brother, “I am confident of this very thing: that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the Day of Christ.” (Php 1:6)

This is descriptive of faith LIKE a child. A new child believes without question its Father’s promise, and expects without compromise the fruits of that promise. This alone shall lay hold of all that God reserves in His inexhaustible treasury. For He has gladly bestowed upon us the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus – let us therefore not insult His Spirit through passing it by in unbelief! In the end, the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable was not the younger, who boldly received the open arms of his father; but it was the elder, who kept himself a stranger to the grace of his father even though he never left his vicinity. He had continual access to every good and perfect gift, but never asked or received of it. Under the self-made cloak of loyalty (dead works of the flesh), he lived after his own will rather than availing himself of becoming a son; something which his father had reserved for whomever would recieve it. “But as many as received him, to them gave he POWER to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” (John 1:12)

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”(Romans 8:12-15)

The sin of the elder brother in Jesus’ parable was a lack of faith disguised in the outward humility of dead works. Under the premise of not spoiling his father’s abundant grace, he never availed himself of any of it. But true humility is that which boldly asks God for strength in the time of need without pretending to bring anything of worth to the table; for it knows the folly of self-effort well enough to ask for nothing less than the provisions of God Himself in Christ Jesus. For if we have a perfect Father who rewards the diligent seeker (and we do), then we can be certain that He on His part will not fail – only let us also exercise faith to walk forward into the unknown, not shrinking back as those who are destroyed. The true humility of faith moves beyond the veiled pride of self-deprication: it is the confidence to depend upon God alone at the expense of all self. It is the same mind which also was in Christ Jesus, it is HIS faith! Our faith shall grow up to His stature if we exercise that which is already given; and His grace indeed sufficient. Do you believe this? Die! Rise and walk! God’s rest awaits those who by faith and patience inherit the promises, where the Spirit works through the yielded of God who trust and obey.

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it,
and those who formerly received the good news
failed to enter because of disobedience;
again He appoints a certain day,
TODAY, saying through David…
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts…”
(Hebrews 4:6-7)

We are all too eager in our day to label all boldness before God as “arrogance,” and all humanly-conceived works as “humility.” This propensity of ours is the Devil’s programming through the unstable and unspiritual men whom many today call teachers. Satan would not have any man approach the throne of grace, and he will do everything within his power to dissuade us. But the foot-dragging of doubt and self-sufficiency is the spiritual melodrama of a belligerent soul which only causes it to continue stumbling and falling in darkness. This will only continue where the Holy Spirit is given no further room to empower because the self remains enshrined, if not enthroned. Self-righteousness is the greatest obstacle to true repentance; and therefore itself requires much. The depth of REPENTANCE determines the potential depth of faith’s roots; and the depth of going beyond our own strength determines the depth in which the Holy Spirit can operate. “Now the lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the lord is, there is liberty…”

When Peter stepped out of the boat, he stepped further out of his own life and further into Christ’s. In that moment his heart caught a glimpse of the truth that the only safe place is to be with Christ wherever HE goes at the expense of all else.

“The christian life from start to finish is based upon this principle of utter dependance upon the Lord Jesus… Do you think that if you cease trying to please God your good behavior will cease? If you leave all the giving and all the working to God, do you think the result will be less satisfactory than if you do some of it? It is when we seek to do it ourselves that we place ourselves back again under the Law. But the works of the Law, even our best efforts, are “dead works,” hateful to God because they are ineffectual.”
– Watchman Nee, ‘Sit, Walk Stand’

For the Law perfected nothing;
but the bringing in of a better Hope did,
through Which we draw near to God.(Hebrews 7:17)

“Come to Me, all those laboring and being burdened, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, because I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”(Matthew 11:28-30)

For through the grace of God which is given to me, I say to everyone being among you, not to have high thoughts beyond what is right to think. But set your mind to be right-minded, even as God divided a measure of faith to each. For even as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, so we the many are one body inChrist…(Romans 12:3-5, LITV)

The fruit of faith will be in accordance with its measure. First there is that initial measure which “God divided” to each; and then there is the greater measure attained as each one humbly invests said deposit by the allowance of God’s power to be at work in them unto righteousness, bringing forth fruit unto salvation. For the gospel in which His righteousness is revealed from faith to faith is unto salvation (Rom 1:16-17). The parable of the talents illustrates to the wise the absurdity of not walking in such increasing faith; since the deposit of faith was freely given, as well as access to the power for said increase. This is also why we ought not to think highly of ourselves above one another, since even our increase is by the power of God through faith in Christ…

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.(1 Peter 1:3-5, ESV)

“Guarded through faith” – but what is the nature of that faith? It has long been taught that all one will ever need to walk in the power of Christ is faith the size of a mustard seed. No such thing can be found in all of scripture. Jesus said nothing about such little faith except in rebuke. He did however reveal that we are required to have faith LIKE a grain of mustard seed: “…If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”(Matt 17:20, Lk 17:6)The difference here is immense, considering the parable of the grain of mustard seed. For while the natural man proudly settles for little faith (the size of a mustard seed), Christ Jesus meanwhile describes the kingdom within His people in terms of ever-increasing faith (LIKE a mustard seed)….

And He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard, which, when it is sown on the earth, it is less than all the seeds of those on the earth. And when it is sown, it comes up and becomes greater than all the plants, and produces great branches, so as to enable the birds of the heaven to roost under its shade.”(Mark 4:30-32, LITV)

It is within the very nature of genuine faith to grow unto greater faith; and the sustaining of living faith over time actually depends upon its continual growth. Only through such faith as this can we be guarded by God’s power until the end. Today’s faith is not sufficient to lay hold of the power required to overcome the world tomorrow. But such faith cannot be born of the flesh. Only the ever-increasing faith of Christ Himself is the faith which becomes able to move mountains. Jesus has overcome the world, and we have yet to grow into the fullness of HIM! For by faith, “we all with unveiled face behold the glory of the Lord… being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor 2:18)

Faith will only attain life in God to the degree that it has attained death in ourselves. The great tree grown from a grain of mustard in the parable of the kingdom is the Tree of Life, Jesus. He was sown in the earth a dead Seed and now lives to give life to all who died with Him. We grow up into His fullness by being members of Him in His death, burial, and resurrection by faith. Now if these three things are indeed our spiritual history by faith, then they should also become present realities by the obedience of faith for which we have received grace from God. “…we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith…” (Rom 1:5, ESV) That which true faith believes, it finds power from God to apprehend in experience. The grace of God appeared not simply to be admired, but to be walked in the power of. For He who died is the One in whom we are to remain planted, and He who rose also seeks to water and supply the growth. Let us therefore accept and submit to our death in Him daily, laying hold of the nutrients of His word and the watering of His Spirit by faith ever extending itself heavenward; as our roots drink evermore deeply of the love of the One who first loved us when we were yet His enemies. And that is the first key of faith: the acceptance of our place IN HIM apart from our own doing. It is only the pride of the sinful nature which doubts this; and it must be reckoned dead before Christ’s own Life can live in us. He will not suffer a rival in His temple.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat that falls into the earth dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit. The one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it to everlasting life.(John 12:24-25)

If we derive the power to walk after Christ from our own soul, then we do not truly walk as Christ walked. Only the faith of Christ is of true substance, not ourselves. The soul is saved to be restored unto the rule of the Good Shepherd, not unto its own. The soul is always beholden to the storm-tossed flesh if it is not beholden to the spirit under God’s Spirit. Jesus calms the storm from the inside out. The only works pleasing before God are those wrought in HIM. Only Christ living in and through us is a true fruitful life in the sight of God. All we bring to the table is the faith to surrender to His working – the faith which He gave us in the first place! If the matter was finished for us when Christ died, how much more then, since He is risen and seated on high, shall it now be being finished in us by the power of His own Spirit whom He sent for that very purpose! Or are we greater than He who said, “I am able to do nothing from Myself… for I do not seek My will, but the will of the One sending Me, the Father”? Surely we are not! So let us be made conformable to His death, even that the measure of the stature of His fullness might be shown forth in we who are HIS body. We are not our own: He would see our spirit and soul and body kept blameless for His coming – all three must come under the dominion of His own Spirit. This is the inner working of true faith that produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Faith which reckons itself dead in Him is proven by the same faith springing forth and branching out in the tangible substance of Christ’s Life. If we truly submit to God’s Word, then He (the Word) will even divide soul from spirit and lay bare every secret of the heart and mind, giving way to the complete rule of the Spirit of God in us. For the will of man and the faith of his own soul cannot lay hold of that which belongs only to the Spirit of God. It is only possible by the very FAITH OF CHRIST, who beheld the Father at all times, which is unfeigned and ever-increasing from glory to glory; and it only comes “from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

For as He beheld His Father, so do we in Him, and He in us. And as His likeness becomes revealed in us, “His Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are sons…”May such pure and unmixed faith thrive and multiply within the regenerated hearts of His own to become grown sons! Let that same mind of humble confidence be found in us which also was in Christ Jesus: the Seed who died to plant the kingdom of God within His people. Let us likewise more fully believe unto death that we would more fully believe unto Life: from glory to glory by faith to faith! Such is the faith of Christ, our only true Life.

For in it(the gospel of Christ)the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; even as it has been written, “But the just shall LIVE by faith.”(Romans 1:17)

The measure of faith exercised within us is displayed in the measure of His righteousness being revealed through us. If I know that I have already died on the cross with Christ, I can find rest in dying daily. And if I have so died and remain dying, His Spirit may thereby work His resurrection Life in me. This is how the daily cross which results from obedience in a rebellious world becomes a light and momentary affliction; and even the earthly body may begin to acquire the marks of the cross. But again, the order is from the inward man to the outward man; it cannot be the other way around – that is self-made religion. If we have come to rest in Christ, let us remain working from that surrendered bliss and allow the body to reflect what is first true of the soul…

…Always bearing about the dying of the Lord Jesus in the body, that also the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body.(2 Corinthians 4:10)

For I calculate that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to compare to the coming glory to be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revelation of the sons of God.(Romans 8:18-19, LITV)

Faith which suffers the cross rejoicing is faith that overcomes the world. And we can have confidence because this faith has been tried and proven true; for it was the Lord’s before it became ours.

The heart of genuine faith gives way to only the Life of Christ Himself within His body. How can we claim to possess the faith of Christ when we live from ourselves?

...My brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, for you to become Another’s, to One raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit to God. For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sin were working in our members through the law for the bearing of fruit unto death. But now we have been set free from the law, having died to that in which we were held, so as for us to serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.
(Romans 7:4-6, LITV)

Holiness is not merely a way of living, it is the very Life of God reigning freely in a man who is given over to Him. We shall only authentically live like Christ from the inward parts to the degree that His impending Life is at last allowed to replace our own. To seek for anything less from God in light of our sins reveals the pride of life that is born of the self-deceived sinful flesh. “I am simply too weak Lord” is the inevitable cry of the man who has evidently tried to accomplish by the fleshly nature the holy Life which he himself can never live. But the proper cry of the new creature is, “Lord, you are all that I have, my very Life: as I bring nothing except what You work in me.”
For the “weakness” of God cannot even be lowered to comparison with the “strength” of man: it is a comparison of the very nature of God with the nature of that which cannot but oppose and fall short of His glory. The strength for which we must cry is not strength of ourselves, but rather the strength which is His very Life; because except for Christ, I do not even have life before God! Yes, even the new creature is not mine to operate: it is HIS vessel, meant to be operated by the power of His Spirit.
No other is able. Not I, but Christ – Christ in me.

The fear and trembling with which we work out our salvation is the sweet fear and trembling of surrender; for it is only God Himself who can work in us to will and to do according to His good pleasure. The law of sin and death is set aside by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus – and by no other means. And these two laws, which work in their respective subjects, were spoken of by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatians…

For through law I died to law, that I might live to God.
(Galatians 2:19, LITV)

By faith’s surrender to the law of the Spirit of Life, we are released from the law of sin and death that is at work in the sinful flesh. That which causes us to walk against the will and pleasure of the Spirit may truly be done away with to continually receive the Life that is in Christ Jesus! “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom 8:2)
Without Christ, I lived after the flesh and was dead to God. But by faith, although still living in the flesh, I died in Him; so that my only Life may now be securely hidden with the risen Christ in God. For the righteous shall live by faith! And by a faith which has no motive except God’s own glory at every expense, we may lay hold of His Life in actual experience…

I have been crucified with Christ, and I live; yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith toward the Son of God, the One loving me and giving Himself over on my behalf.I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness is through law(that is, apart from the Spirit through faith),then Christ died without cause.
(Galatians 2:20-21, LITV)

Christ is the end of that which ministers condemnation through the fleshly attempts of outward observance: He is the very law God’s Life at work in those who keep HIS faith in themselves. The great sin of disobedience which caused the children of Israel to fall away, according to the writer of Hebrews, was unbelief. It was this bitter root of dissatisfaction with the original and unchanging promise of God by which they kept themselves from entering His rest. In other words, they judged God by what their carnal eyes saw rather than walking after the Spirit by faith which is the substance of things hoped for. Those who kept no faith in the promise instead longed again for the bondage of Egypt: rather than looking for the city of God, the heavenly kingdom, in which we now may be immersed by the Holy Spirit. For the King of glory has arrived to His people: let Him come in and reign! Is not the kingdom within His own? Are they not His temple? But when we have no trust in Christ to be our present sustainer and only strength, we shall likewise come short of entering that rest (Heb 4:1). Meanwhile, the promise of entering still stands, waiting to be reached by the steps of faith that can only be made in the very Spirit who labors graciously to that end. Let us therefore not insult Him by disallowing His rule in and over the entirety of our being.

“This is the work of God: that you believe into Him whom that One sent.” – Jesus spoke of faith as the key to the very powerful working of God. It cannot the work of a man; for the best that any man can do is revive the old man to rule over the new and so deceive himself. “You cannot serve two masters…” It is only by God that all things are possible, and this is given to those who actively believe. The key to holiness is surrender – nothing less. “It is finished” must become an ever-nearer reality in our lives, bearing the righteous fruit that can only be apprehended by unfeigned faith, trusting in God to increase in us as we ourselves decrease. All we can bring to the table is surrender on all fronts. It is finished: and by the grace of God through faith not pretended, let it continue to be finished within the purchased possession! For by blood of His covenant we are sanctified; as the the Spirit actively works even in the present moment through our faith – faith which surrenders the whole being to the refining fire of God. We take hold of Him as we let go of our own ways and things, knowing the love of God toward those who so believe Him with their lives. “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.” (Heb 4:9-10) Today, let it no longer be we who live, but CHRIST!

…for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them to be trash, that I might gain Christ and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness of law, but through the faith OF Christ, having the righteousness of God on faith: to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, having been conformed to His death, if somehow I may attain to a resurrection out of the dead. Not that I already received or already have been perfected, but I press on, if I also may lay hold, inasmuch as I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:10-12, LITV)

Here is described in the simplest of terms the vision of those whom God calls wise.
True wisdom is not gleaned from what the eye of the body beholds outside, but rather by the continued discipline of a redeemed soul that remains watchful of its own internal affairs. We are exhorted to keep our hearts with all diligence because it is the nature of a man that determines his fruit.

For although our Lord and judge has for our sake become a man with like passions as we, still the prophet spoke of Him: “He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear; but with righteousness shall He judge…” (Isa 11:3)

And let that also be said of those who are to follow in His steps! The man who is motivated by apparent outcomes and outward appearances is caught in the ungodly self-awareness of sinful pride – minding the things of the flesh rather than of the Spirit, which mind is “at enmity with God,”and “cannot please God…”But Christ Jesus, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, has once for all delivered us who believe into Him out of the slavery of that form of godliness into the substance and power of His indestructible Life; which now is evidently at work in those who obey Him in the Spirit of Life, by whose power we are raised from the dead in Him.

Therefore, we no longer need live as though debtors to the flesh; but rather we may despair of all but Him and give ourselves over to that One, whose power is ever at the ready to animate those who by faith will apprehend the fullness HIS resurrection Life in forsaking their own. And by such deliverance from darkness into His marvelous Light, we will indeed find that in HIS light we shall see Light! It is here that we shall live in the upright awareness of humility before the eyes of the Holy One – not according to human precepts and teachings, which “have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (Col 2)

For our confidence in He who IS our life allows us to look upon ourselves – yet not as the world, which sees the outward appearance of its self-projected image – but rather as beholding HIM, and thereby rightly knowing our own true estate through the very eyes of the One living in us, who beholds the hidden secrets of every heart. Only one born from above and walking in Christ as a new creature has the veil removed so as to rightly discern by the mind of Christ through His indwelling Spirit what things lie within his innermost being; whatever pure and lovely things that bring holy delight, or whatever lingering idols lie in wait for his soul; whatever effectual working of God must be allowed to shine forth before men, or whatever detestable old creature must be expelled without mercy.

The wise man’s eyes are in his head; his counsel is derived of the Spirit of God within him, and he seeks that Counselor diligently so that he may obey His voice faithfully and without hindrance.

The lamp of the body is the eye.
Then if your eye is sound, all your body is light.
But if your eye is evil, all your body is dark.
If, then, the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!(Matthew 6:22-23)